AFRICA
AUSTRALIA
ASIA
EUROPE
NORTH
AMERICA
SOUTH
AMERICA
1. Miami
6. Mumbai
2. Guangzhou
3. New York-Newark
4. New Orleans
5. Hong Kong
10. Ho Chi Minh City
7. Osaka-Kobe
8. Shanghai
9. Amsterdam
The Cost
of Climate
Change in
2050
Higher seas mean greater financial
exposure for coastal cities, where
populations are growing and the value
of buildings and infrastructure is
increasing. More frequent flooding
would likely disrupt insurance under-
writing and with it the financing that
drives development in cities such as
Miami. If sea levels rose just 16 inches
by 2050, the flood damage in port
cities could cost a trillion dollars
a year. With ingenuity and significant
investment, new fortifications might
limit flooding, but cities would need to
keep improving and maintaining them.
Inevitably an extreme weather event
would overwhelm defenses. World
Bank researcher Stéphane Hallegatte,
who has estimated how much such
events could cost urban areas at mid-
century, says, “Protection protects us
until it fails.”
Treading Water 127